Author/Artist Review

Tell us a little about yourself. Andy Mendonsa is the Servant Director for Widows Harvest Ministries, a faith-based non-profit he helped found 30 years ago (June 1987) in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He holds an Associate of Arts degree, Oxford College of Emory University (1976) and a Bachelor of Journalism degree, University of Georgia (1978).

Presently, Andy and his wife Gloria live in the historic neighborhood of St Elmo in a restored 1920's era house, with their 2 dogs; Fergus, a Welsh Corgi, and Thumper, a Basset Hound.

What was your motivation behind this project? To Plead the Cause of Widows, both for the necessity of their care as well as the recognition of their call to the specific ministry of prayer, all in the context of what God considers to be "pure and undefiled worship."

What do you hope folks will gain from this project? A greater understanding for the Biblical definition of worship, i.e. what Jesus actually meant when he told the woman at the well in John 4 that God desires that the true worshipers will worship him "in spirit and in truth." To that end, if we do not have a Biblical understanding of worship then deception has most likely overtaken us, but how can we know for certain? "Spiritual Widow" presents James 1:27 as the litmus test for being able to gauge the degree of our own deception.

How were you personally impacted by working on this project? It has provided me with a Scriptural basis for determining why the condition of the church today is not so dissimilar from the condition of the church that Jesus told the religious leaders in Mat 23:38, "Behold your house is left unto you desolate."

Who are your influences, sources of inspiration or favorite authors / artists? For over 30 years the ministry where I serve as servant direction has had a cross-culturally, diverse, widow's prayer ministry. The widows that have faithfully come together each week to pray for the church to be the "pure and undefiled bride that God desires her to be" have, by far, had the greatest impact and influence in my life bar none.

Anything else you'd like readers / listeners to know: According to II Corinthians 11:1-4, our vulnerability as the church, both male and female, is that of Eve for being deceived. Once we are in Christ, having accepted his proposal of marriage (the gospel), as his bride our vulnerability is no longer that of the first Adam. Jesus, as last and final Adam, is the only Adam in the equation going forward. When we fail to realize this, in a very real sense, we have already succumbed to the subtleties of deception with "our minds being led astray from the simplicity that is in Christ."